Your ride today....

[Rickshaw Phil]

Another little jaunt this afternoon. I changed my mind about routes a couple of times and ended up with a shorter but hillier one that I thought would work with the wind direction: Lyth Hill, Condover, Longnor, Hollyhurst, Dudgeley, Smethcott, Wilderley, Pulverbatch, Longden, Exfords Green, Lyth Hill.

Like yesterday it was quite breezy and today it was a southerly so I expected to work against the wind to start then have it helping me home. This time the it didn't seem too bad while climbing up Lyth Hill but over the other side was slow going once I'd dropped down to the flatter roads.

I plodded my way along without incident through Hollyhurst then after crossing the A49 again enjoyed the helping shove as I doubled back along the other side of the valley, saying hi to the only other cyclist I saw today.

On the climb up to Walkmills and Smethcott the wind seemed to be against me again which I wasn't expecting. I later found out that it had swung round to a westerly at about this point in the ride. That meant that the very undulating section through Wilderley to Pulverbatch was harder going than I'd hoped.

At Pulverbatch I have a nice long mostly downhill section for about 3 miles and got up some decent speed. The wind was helping for some of it but there were a few places where a cross-wind through a field gate was "interesting". I took the longer way to Exfords Green and when I finally got the wind fully behind me into the valley at Westley I hit my top speed of the trip at 34.9 mph.

26.75 miles at 12 mph average. Fairly content with that.

The Lawley viewed from Dudgeley.

A pool near the top of the climb at Smethcott.

View from the Wilderley to Pulverbatch road.

 

[EltonFrog]

I thought I’d go out on the MTB today, it’s been months since I’ve been out on that, the Fragrant MrsP warned it would be muddy...it was, very.

I dug out the bike from the back of the shed, a quick safety check and out onto the Lynchway towards the Ridgway with no particular plan in mind, the track was coated in slushy mud, and there was a hell of a headwind riding up the hill, but once in the trees and where it flattened out it was a bit easier, after a couple miles I hit the fire track which is either slushy mud in the winter or dry grit dust in the summer, along there towards the A34 where there’s a farm track that once was the old A34 complete with old cats eyes.

I was dreading the next bit going up the long narrow bridleway which is covered in brambles and overgrown hedges...but...it wasn’t, apparently BT had been along and installed cables and inspection points along the track and cleared it all out. FAB! It was still slippery though and my useless Californian tyres were spinning around in the chalky muddy surface.

Once at the top I was on the Ridgway then under the A34 and down the other side to East Isley through the villages and back up the hill to the Ridgway again, this time with the wind behind me, I flew up there, along the track at the top and down the other side along a bridleway that’s wasn’t suited for bikes, I bounced down it arse out the saddle for about half a mile then I was on rough pothole tarmac, at least it was easier. With the wind still behind me I flew the last couple of miles back ( with my hands off the bar for some of it, it’s been years since I’ve done that) down to Blewbury and along the two fields back home.

A bright windy day. 11.80 muddy miles. It was a nice change to off the roads, a much slower pace on a MTB but still a work out.

 

[Oxford Dave]

Bit breezy on this side of the shire as well. I rode through Yelford & Curbridge into Witney then attempted to find the cycle route out of town to Stanton Harcourt. I got there (and then another 3 miles to home) but not all on the cycle route, which looks like it's posted going into town but not going out!
I did the ride mainly to check the route out, so now I am a little wiser. Just over 19 miles today, but the headwind made it feel more. Can't say I noticed any benefits from the wind when it was behind me though.

 

[Donger]

..... I rode ....... into Witney then attempted to find the cycle route out of town to Stanton Harcourt.....

Funny you should mention that. I'll be riding through Stanton Harcourt and Witney on Sunday. I do like the Windrush Winter Warmer audax. It's the audax that I've done more than any other, and it gets me into your patch. A nice part of the world.

 

[Old jon]

Definitely warm this morning. But, as discovered when I rode away from home, that wind had an edge to it. And a fair bit of strength. It was intended to be a short ride today, the wind gusts on the way down to Jack Lane decided it would be flat as well.

As flat as the Leeds and Liverpool Canal is, anyway. Seventeen miles and 500 odd feet of up doesn’t quite fit the description. And the wind. Should have been a southwesterly and probably was. Whichever point of the compass it comes from, it always seems to blow down the Aire valley. It was constant though, no sudden cross winds.

So, easy riding, spare time for the grey cell to wander. This stretch of canal was opened in 1777, all the way to Gargrave from Leeds. Riding along the towpath passes a lot of history on each side, on the right after Wellington Bridge was Fairbairn Lawson, bag making machines; on the left Greenwood and Batley, steam turbines and cold headers. A cold header forms the head on a screw or bolt, hex, phillips, allen or what ever. Noisily. Pass all this, and Kirkstall Abbey too, and ride on to Rodley. Time for a snack and the gps says eight miles, good time to take the return route.



Kirkstall station, aye, lets cross the tracks and ride on the road back to town. All of a sudden, the wind is a nuisance again. Let’s blame the traffic, though there was not much about. Cycle track and bus lane most of the way, and then the busy centre of town. But the canal comes to the rescue, ride along Aire Street a bit and turn left back onto the towpath. Not for long, Office Lock is close, leave the towpath there and wander gently through a bit of Hunslet then up the road to home. It is good to put some miles under the wheels, gives me a grin, anyway.

And another reason to smile, just had a call from Bob Jackson’s. My new frame is ready to pick up. Shame it has to wait until Monday.

And a map

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

After rain earlier in the day there was a chance to get out again this afternoon so I took it. Once again, nothing fancy about the route: Condover, Cantlop, Acton Burnell, Cound, Cross Houses, Atcham, , Attingham Park, Upton Magna, Uffington, then along the old canal path to do a meandering tour of the town centre before heading out over the English Bridge.

Windy again and cool rather than cold. A lot of the ride to Acton Burnell was against the wind but from there I had it helping for quite a while. Many of the roads have a film of mud so the bike is properly filthy.

Traffic was about what I'd expect for a Friday afternoon but it was nice to see a handful of other cyclists out on the rural roads with more as I got closer in to town. You'd think it was already the weekend to see the number of people out walking in the Quarry.

The cloud thickened up quite a lot as the ride went on so it seemed to go dark early. I got home convinced it must be about five o' clock when actually it wasn't long after four.

27.7 miles at 12.6 mph average. I didn't stop for photos this time.

 

[Oxford Dave]

Funny you should mention that. I'll be riding through Stanton Harcourt and Witney on Sunday. I do like the Windrush Winter Warmer audax. It's the audax that I've done more than any other, and it gets me into your patch. A nice part of the world.

If you're coming through Standlake don't forget to wave! Though I'll be out on my bike in the morning and getting ready for a small gig in the afternoon.

 

[Andy in Germany]

Last Monday I managed to have two appointments: one in a town a few kilometres away, and another job interview, this time in Tübingen, some 50k to the south.

Our public transport system is efficient at taking people from the edges of Stuttgart to the centre; it isn't so good at carrying people from one part of the outskirts to another. An organised person would solve this by making sure that the two appointments were on separate days.

I am not that person.

I worked out that with an earlyish start I could cycle the 10k to my first appointment, then catch three different trains to Tübingen, ride to my interview with time to change and scrape the worst of the muck off, and then afterwards cycle back. This would also give me a shortish ride to test out the Brooks saddle recently fitted to the bike.

It turned out this was the best possible plan because that morning all the local farmers were protesting some government policy by driving their tractors along all the main roads. Sunrise was accompanied by the sound of hundreds of diesel engines and car horns, with your correspondent passing the whole procession on the bike lane.

Thankfully the first appointment was right next to the railway station so after it finished I legged it down to the train, and after a moderately epic journey found myself in Tübingen. I rode to the interview venue, and an attempt to look civilised in the privvy, and went to my interview.

After making polite conversation for an hour I reversed the transformation to become a car free hippy again, and joined the cycle route to Stuttgart.

To my rather great surprise I found myself at the "blue bridge" only 45 minutes after leaving Tübingen. This is about 15k from the city and normally takes at least an hour.

Some context is needed for this. I'm used to being one of the slowest riders in a group, and I'm usually found at the back or taking a similar role to all those tractors I'd encountered earlier. Either there was a strong tailwind, or this bike was a fair bit faster than I thought.

Right then...

The next waymark is the town of Nürtingen, about fifteen kilometres away and usually another hours riding. It was 3:45pm, If I pushed it a bit and stopped faffing about taking photographs quite as much, I could make Nurtingen in under an hour as well. That was pretty fast. Well, for me anyway.


Chain up onto big ring, and off we went, through the next village, over the river on the road bridge, and back onto the cycleway. This zigzagged for no apparent reason through the fields, then back to the road where it gave up and became a footpath before becoming a road in an industrial estate. After this a graceful bridge crossed the river and onto a fairly busy road, so busy in fact that there was a traffic jam, so I was and slipped between two cars for a few seconds before cutting through the village itself.

Another bridge (Okay, so I took a picture there too, I told you I wouldn't be that fast) and I was out in fields again. This lasted several more kilometres and there was a strong feeling of Deja-vu as the cycleway gave up in yet another village. This became a park with a curving pedestrian/cycle bridge which once again became an utterly inappropriate cycleway and a dangerous turn to a road which was at least straight, so I pushed a bit to the edge of the houses.

Here the cycleway follows a farm road, and I swung onto this with graceful aplomb, and remembered why this wasn't a good idea when I hit the first pothole. Some loosened teeth later, the cycleway turned through horse pastures, past a small resort, with the restaurant still closed and shuttered for the winter. Then there was a forest, and I was back alongside the river with rowers charging up and down the now slow flowing water. Ahead of was a road bridge, and then the church tower at Nürtingen came into view, reflected in the water.

Unfortunately it was showing 5:20pm, which meant I was even slower than before.

Then I cleaned the muck off my glasses, and looked again.

4:20pm.

I'd just cycled 15km in about 35 minutes.

Of course the fundamental rule of cycle touring is that riding as fast as you can for 30km is a bad idea when the next 15km is going to be rather hilly.

I probably should have thought about that sooner.

Absolutely worth it though...

 

[colly]

Out this morning into the wind. It didn't look too bad when I set off across the park but after getting blown sideways a couple of times I decided to cut the ride short and miss out on the delights of Harrogate and Wetherby.

So all it in was 13.5 miles in about an hour. Just over 1000ft of up.

View: https://ridewithgps.com/trips/44274114

 

[13 rider]

Warning a Bunny 🐇may have been injured during this ride
Normally the first chance to ride each month is imperial ton time but with my ride buddy indisposed and 40mph winds forecast for mid afternoon so change off plan and target became a metric ton . Out the door at 0630 and it's already blustery . The route was planned to be mainly headwind out so tailwind home . Anstey ,Desford then onto a quick descent to Thurlaston just hitting 30mph when a rabbit dashed into the road and straight under my front wheel . A sickening thud 🤢 and I somehow keep the bike upright 😲 by the time I stopped there was no sign of the rabbit ,let's hope 🙏 bunny's ok but I fear the worst .Through Thurlaston and out to Gilmorton and turn to Lutterworth feeling the full force of the wind . Through Lutterworth to grab a veloviewer square and onto the quiet lanes to Brinklow ,Withybrook for a few more veloviewer squares . Then turn for Nuneaton and finally a tailwind over the A5 and back on familiar roadps Tailwind most of the way home as the average speed creeps upward . 66 miles at an average of 15.2 mph . A tough ride glad I didn't go for an imperial ton sitting here and the winds really picking up

 

[Oxford Dave]

Went out late morning, heading for Clanfield to meet my wife for lunch. She drove there, I left about an hour before her but for some reason hadn't appreciated how windy it was and decided to take in a loop through Stanton Harcourt and Hardwick before heading towards Clanfield.
It was only as I turned off the roundabout at the end of the run through Stanton Harcourt that the wind hit me - really struggled to get to Hardwick lights, and having made it common sense dictated that I should turn left and head home, only a mile and a half or so away. So, I went straight on, battling the wind through Yelford & Lew until I reached Bampton. Nearly there - except the mile and half or so to Clanfield was straight into the increasingly strong wind. Made it, we had lunch, and I took the direct route home (Bampton/Aston/Cote/Standlake) with the wind on my back and flew along! Twenty three and a bit miles in two hours and two minutes. One hundred and fourteen miles so far this week.

 

[Cavalol]

Bit cold out earlier but lovely sunshine, far too nice to stay in. Wheeled the road bike out (been a while), checked wind direction then headed off. It’s usually the case of against me going, behind me coming back on this route and today was no different, except the wind was incredibly strong.

Put it in a reasonable amount coming back along the Dee into Chester, but obviously the wind helped. Got 7 PBs which I’m chuffed with as still fat and unfit, and despite wind I really did go for it in parts. Also the bike keeps slipping out of the top (big) chain ring which effected speed at times. Just under 18 miles all in.

 

[Dave 123]

Just a short ride this morning in the sun. I had my knees out for the first time this year too!

Around the coast, then through the lanes up to Westlake... then I made a navigational boo boo and ended up on the A38 for half a mile. It was all fine though

https://www.strava.com/activities/3061586789/

 

[Shearwater Missile]

A sunny but windy ride here in Suffolk. I wanted to pay a pit stop at Cotton to see George the bike man as I wanted him to swap my left crank. The one I gave him to fit with the new BB ended up being too far away from the rear stay and thus my knee being at a different angle to my right. Having a funny pain in my groin this week may have been down to this. I did`nt wan`t to ruin the crank with my cheapo crank extractor from ebay. Lesson learnt, Park tools in future.
So off up to Cotton with a good tailwind in places and was averaging 19mph which I knew would not last but it made me feel good. I was in luck George was in his usual place, his workshop and duly replaced the left crank. It was a bit of a beggar to remove, he obviously had done it up well the week before. The new crank I bought from Halfords and was a good match to the right crank and now is about 10 mm closer if not more to the rear stay. At least we had a good chat both on cycling subjects and the NHS ! I`d spent about 25 minutes with him so I thought I`d cut the ride a bit shorter as Mrs S and I were off out in the afternoon. Doing a loop around Cotton and back to Mendlesham and at one time was up to 29mph with that 23 mph westerly wind. I paid for that in the closing stages of the ride with both a headwind and terrific gusts. All in all 21.6 miles with just 643 feet of up at 17.2mph average. Temp was 10 degrees but felt a bit cooler and another bonus of dry roads but boy is there a lot of water sitting about with no where to go. No doubt they will declare a water shortage in the summer !

 

[Jenkins]

Another rider from the sunny but very windy Suffolk. Today's outing was essentially the same as last Sunday's, but with a purpose - a click & collect order at Argos in Sainsbury's. The run up to Newbourne wasn't too bad as most of it was either with the wind or sheltered from it by hedges, but after that in the open it was a case of hang on and try to judge how hard the gusts would be in the hedge gaps! As for the slog from Martlesham to Westerfield into the wind...

And to continue the theme of "It's been a mild winter, the crocusus (croci?) are already out in Waldringfield

https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/your-ride-today.173254/post-5862728